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Echoes of moral hysteria in latest art controversies

John Elder

Newcastle detectives seize three pictures by artist Juan Davila in 1984 that were said to be indecent for having gay overtones. Photo: Newcastle Herald

In the middle of the Sydney Contemporary art fair is a ramshackle, glittery pile of stuff. Installation or sculpture, it's essentially a reworking of the materials that appeared at the Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts in St Kilda in June, and caused artist Paul Yore to be charged with possessing and producing child pornography.

Yore reportedly toned down the piece for its Sydney appearance. Artist Juan Davila - himself a victim of art censorship - described the piece as ''a happy thing, a wonderful work, a compilation of rubbish he found in the street: toys and bits of paintings and glitter, all very fun. It seems there was some sort of fornication, but I didn't think that was the case. There were faces, like a child would paint, naive.''

But none of that would stop the organisers of the Sydney Contemporary covering Yore's work with a black theatrical curtain late last week. Chief executive of Sydney Contemporary Barry Keldoulis said the artwork would have broken NSW criminal laws, and therefore had to be hidden.

Paul Yore with part of the installation that led to his being charged. Photo: Justin McManus

This case, and the withdrawal last week of photographer Bill Henson from the Adelaide Biennial, have people in the art and legal scene pondering issues of moral panic and cynical attention-seeking.

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In Adelaide, a South Australian police detective sparked another controversy when he wrote to every MP in that state, the Premier and the director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, warning that Henson's participation in the Adelaide Biennial might include images of naked children. In fact, the gallery's chairman Michael Abbott says the biennial images were of clouds and doorways. There were no people.

But in the endless wake of the 2008 controversy over Henson's muted image of a 13-year-old girl - described by then prime minister Kevin Rudd as ''revolting'' - the artist withdrew from the biennial, characteristically with no comment.

A toned down version in Sydney.

Yore, his gallerist and his lawyer are likewise refusing to talk, in part because of the serious criminal charges Yore is facing. There is also the reality that a mysterious hole of quietness at the centre of a circus births a mountain of comment, speculation and fury.

''My personal impression is that all of this was a set-up to create controversy, so the public will come to the art fair, but I can't confirm this - but this is always the way,'' says Davila, a painter whose work has writhed with intestines, scatology and sexual subversion, and who, in 1982, saw one of his works, Stupid As A Painter declared obscene and seized by NSW police.

''The police are obliged to act on a complaint, but the complainants are often people who are seeking publicity.'' In his case, he says moral campaigner, the Reverend Fred Nile, was seeking to raise his own profile.

Bill Henson. Photo: Simon Schluter

Davila had a champion in NSW premier Neville Wran who stood up and said that police had no place in an art gallery, and the controversy quickly died away. There are no politicians standing up for Paul Yore - certainly not with a Royal Commission into child sex abuse going on.

''There is a moral panic about anything to do with the child. All sense has been lost. When our politicians enter the fray, their reaction is from the gut, and not rational,'' says Davila. ''Yet, if an artist draws attention to a social issue that's a wonderful thing for art.''

Social researcher David Chalke says the pervading mood of the public wouldn't accept a Neville Wran intervening on behalf of Paul Yore or Bill Henson. ''The whole area of child abuse has been raised to the highest priority, with a royal commission and nightly TV summaries. The public is bound to be a lot less tolerant.''

And yet, he says, it's a confected outrage. ''Henson's work is hardly porn. It's young girls with their clothes off … but the average Australian is pretty simple. A year 10 education, a year 8 reading level … and a suspicion of high art.''

Chris McAuliffe, art historian, and honorary fellow of the Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne, says Australian art has a history of sparking moral panic ''no matter if it's Norman Lindsay being harangued about nudes or Lionel Lindsay complaining that Jews were taking over the art market''. McAuliffe says the panic is usually sparked by someone ''looking for a territory where they can articulate their fears about modern life in general''. Art galleries, he argues, exist as forums for ideas more than repositories of prettiness. ''My concern is when people go into galleries and start complaining, it's like people going into an abattoir and saying 'shit, there are people killing animals here'.''

McAuliffe points to the growing awareness of child abuse, worries about online pornography and sexting, and people's capacity to mobilise around campaigns.

''My attitude is, if people have moral or social or political concerns, talk at the top of your voice … Moral panic isn't about subtlety or detail or history. No one's standing on the morning show saying let's talk about the exploitation of women over 5000 years and the attendant patriarchy … They're saying 'I went in to buy a slushie and saw a nudie mag'.''

He notes that every state gallery features 19th century paintings in gold frames that have the questionable sexualisation ''of a young man or woman and no one complaining about it. Why is that? Because it's in a gold frame or because you cannot get mileage out of a dead guy?''

Jane Dixon, SC, is the president of Liberty Victoria. She says the Yore court case will test the elasticity of the definition of child pornography. ''Paul would argue his work is making an argument about contemporary society and consumerism.''